Lessons from three decades of IT productivity research: towards a better understanding of IT-induced productivity effects

Stefan Schweikl () and Robert Obermaier ()
Additional contact information
Stefan Schweikl: University of Passau
Robert Obermaier: University of Passau

Management Review Quarterly, 2020, vol. 70, issue 4, No 1, 507 pages

Abstract: Abstract New developments in the fields of artificial intelligence or robotics are receiving considerable attention from businesses, as they promise astonishing gains in process efficiency—sparking a surge of corporate investments in new, digital technologies. Yet, firms did not become per se more productive, as labor productivity growth in various industrial nations has decelerated in recent years. The fact that the adoption of innovative technologies is not accompanied by productivity increases has already been observed during the dawn of the computer age and became known as Solow’s Paradox. Thus, this paper takes stock of what is known about the Solow Paradox, before incorporating the findings into the debate of the current productivity slowdown. Based on an in-depth review of 86 empirical studies at the firm level, this paper uncovers various reasons for the emergence of the Solow Paradox, debates its following reversal marked by the occurrence of excess returns and deduces a model of factors influencing the returns on IT investments. Based on these insights, four overarching explanations of the modern productivity paradox namely adjustment delays, measurement issues, exaggerated expectations and mismanagement are discussed, whereby mismanagement emerges as a currently neglected, but focal issue.

Keywords: IT investment; Information technology; Productivity; IT productivity paradox; Solow Paradox; Industry 4.0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11301-019-00173-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:manrev:v:70:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s11301-019-00173-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11301

DOI: 10.1007/s11301-019-00173-6

Access Statistics for this article

Management Review Quarterly is currently edited by Thomas Reutterer, Jonas F. Puck, Engelbert Dockner and Anne d'Arcy

More articles in Management Review Quarterly from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().